Religious Inquiries
Volume:10 Issue: 2, Summer-Autumn 2021

There are various aspects to the matter of God as light and, therefore, it is difficult to explain Quranic verses in this regard. In Quran 24:35, God is equated to light. This verse counts as a difficult verse of the Qurʾan due to the delicacy and subtlety of the topic, the supra-rationality of God, and the fact that the Quranic verse is ambiguous (mutashābih). Since light is a creation of God, how might God be compared to a creation? This question has sparked a variety of explanations for this verse. The ongoing development of ideas concerning this verse as well as the puzzle of God’s comparison to light require an examination of the issue in greater detail. The present study examines and evaluates the historical evolution of Imami approaches to the topic. It also provides a comprehensive theory inclusive of the previous views and in keeping with the context, exegetical narratives, and the meaning of light.

Serious considerations of the relationship between religion and human sciences, and the formulation of human sciences as adapted to the cultural context of Islamic Iran, should be traced back to the intellectual context prior to the Islamic Revolution (1979) and in the thoughts of intellectuals such as ʿAllāma Ṭabāṭabāʾī, Muṭahharī, ʿAlī Sharīʿatī, and others. In the Seminary of Qom, efforts have been made in 1960s and 1970s to confront the ideas in modern Western philosophy and human sciences from the perspective of the Islamic culture and philosophy. In the post-revolutionary strands, however, there is no consensus on the possibility and necessity as well as methodology of indigenization (or Islamization) of human sciences. Even those who advocate the Islamization of sciences do not agree over the grounds, the method, and the strategy. The relationship between religion and human sciences can be studied at three levels: 1. The epistemological level: considering human sciences as epistemic fields—this can be referred to as an epistemological-propositional conception of human sciences.‌2. The institutional level: The institutional level is concerned with sociological studies of the institution of science as a major and crucial institution of a society. Émile Durkheim (1858-1917), as a key intellectual in human sciences, refers to sociology as a “science of institutions, their genesis and their functioning” (Durkheim 1964, 45). This level can be referred to as the academic conception of human sciences. 3. The discursive level: how human sciences have been experienced and understood by intellectual, cultural, social, religious and even political currents, what actions and reactions it has provoked, and how effective it has been in the field of policy-making and development plans. This level can be referred to as the discursive‌ conception of human science. The main issues in contemporary Iran have been epistemic and conceptual, whereas institutionalization and discourse were not equally appreciated. In recent years, there have been attempts, particularly by the Council for Transformation in Human Sciences, to tie the epistemic level to both institutional and discursive levels. This article provides an analytical-critical review of this experience and concludes with suggestions for improving the experience.

Interactions between Muslims and Christians began with misgivings. However, passage of the time taught the followers of both religions to conduct a dialogue in a more charitable way. In the contemporary world where atheistic inclinations threaten, not a particular religion, but the very foundations of religiosity, an ever increasing convergence was formed between Muslims and Christians. In fact, this convergence still faces historical and theological obstacles. We intend to articulate Christian evangelism as an obstacle for the establishment of convergence in some places. We conclude that evangelization as a theological commitment, rooted in the New Testament and Christian tradition, extended from its limited version among Jews to other nations, including Muslims. Evangelization always plays the role of a major obstacle to fundamental convergence. Suspension of cultural and social identity, inferiority, and cultural uprooting are some of the repercussions of evangelization. Each of these is sufficient to hurt the religious feelings of the Muslim nation. In addition to these, one can add fraudulent activities and deception by several Christian missionaries.

With the Western World’s interactions with the Islamic thought, Muslim intellectuals faced new challenges regarding women and human rights. Committed Muslim scholars have always attempted to draw a clear accurate picture of a pure Islamic attitude towards women in family and society. Bint al-Huda al-Sadr amalgamated theoretical thinking with sociopolitical pragmatism. This study attempts to provide a clear picture of the theoretical and conceptual framework of her thought and her view of the role and position of women by analyzing the themes of her articles on women and their challenges in the contemporary society. The analysis first yielded 270 basic themes and 53 organizing themes; after comparing, integrating, and processing them, three inclusive themes and 26 organizing themes were finally extracted. A Muslim woman, Bint al-Huda al-Sadr believes, is first and foremost identified with her husband and children at home. With an independent and, indeed, distinctive identity from men, the woman shoulders specific familial responsibilities. Her most important duty is to appropriately and purposefully rear children. A successful discharge of this duty requires her social presence and life. A Muslim woman must discern the authentic Islamic culture and teachings, according to which she should impede and resist the spread of Western culture.

A controversial question in medical ethics is whether or not organ sale amounts to a violation of human dignity. To answer the question, we need to analyze various approaches to the problem of human dignity. In this paper, I focus on Islamic-Quranic and Kantian approaches to the problem, and examine the challenge of human dignity concerning kidney sale with a descriptive-analytic method. I show that, on both approaches, kidney sale per se does not compromise human dignity. Rather, it may as well protect human dignity and esteem. The key difference between the two approaches is with respect to conditions to be met in order for kidney sale to accord with human dignity. According to the Quranic account of human dignity, kidney sale will be compatible with human dignity and will thus be morally permissible if it is done for the sake of divine consent or satisfaction. However, on Kant’s view, kidney sale will be permissible when it is done out of respect for the law of reason, without involving any instrumentalization of a human being and his body organs. Other differences between the two approaches consist in the origin of human dignity, instrumental or non-instrumental view of the reason, and the extent of responsibility towards others.

Semantics is the bridge by which meaning can be studied and texts can be understood and, finally, the intentions and implications of divine revelations can be discovered. The present study makes use of a methodical approach to deal with two essential issues: firstly, the semantic analysis of “furqan” will be carried out in the context of the holy Quran’s verses by way of a semantic study based on the linguistic context and investigation of the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationships. Secondly, semantics will be deployed in reply to the skepticisms regarding the conceptualization of the word furqan in the Holy Quran as stated in the book Letters for the Prophet Muhammad: A Research on the Roots of the Quran. In line with investigations, it can be said that furqan was syntagmatically used with some words like piety and guidance and it was interchangeably used with words such as scale, Quran and the book. As a final definition of furqan, we suggest that it is not of a lexical character and that it is by exercising the divine teachings that one might gain a “light” by means of which one can distinguish the right from the wrong and easily overcome the calamities and conspiracies of the time. Accordingly, the claim by the author of the book Letters for the Prophet Muhammad to the effect that the term “furqan” refers to a book other than the present Quran is rejected.